Comparing Total Cost of Maintenance (TCM) at Dealer Service Center vs Independent Workshops

Competitive vehicle maintenance cost (including parts and service) helps in creating an overall positive vehicle ownership experience, which is critical in customer retentions and acquisitions. Towards this client wished to assess competitiveness of Periodic Maintenance cost charged by their dealers vs. competition dealers.

Vehicle owners are identified in each market who serviced their vehicles at authorized dealer’s service center from 0 km to 100k Km. Service history of such vehicles are collected and compared with similar data of competition vehicles. Costs of labour, part, fluid and consumables are compiled as listed in the invoice. Subsequently, analyses are conducted to determine price competitiveness at various level.

Vehicle owners who are due for or have recently completed 100k Km service in each market as per nameplates are recruited to participate in the survey. Only owners who purchased vehicles and serviced the vehicle from authorized dealers for all service intervals are included. Service cost estimates from reputed Independent Workshops are also compared with Dealer service costs, this provides insights into reason for some customers going outside dealer service network.

The results provide Client team a holistic view of cost of maintenance from customer’s perspective. The data supports in determining part pricing strategy and variable marketing support to be provided to distributors taking into consideration the competitiveness of parts and labour rates charged by them.

Client Testimonial

“TCM data has become a critical part of our market intelligence needs and we have now made it a part of our annual research budget since last 5 years. It is helping us to plan better negotiation strategy with our distributors. And we believe in the longer run this will have a positive impact on our cost of ownership perceptions.”

Aftersales Pricing Director